Thursday, July 30, 2015

The ALP held it annual convention last weekend and amid the hullabaloo came a pledge from leader Shorten that he will have Australia's energy needs 50% renewable in just 15 years. Currently the figure is around 13% and that includes Tasmania that could meet the ambitious target but it is miniscule in the big picture.

Now apart from the Snowy River scheme built in the 1950s and sixties in the head waters of the Murrumbidgee that then feeds into the Murray, mainland Australia has very little option for Hydro on a scale to get anywhere near such a bold claim.
So that leaves Wind and Solar as the only other options and with wind very problematical on several fronts including Health issues from the very low frequency sound emissions of the turbines, serious lack of wind full stop without any reference to peak demand times, High costs of installation and transmission lines. Adding in a life of twenty years and the need for significant subsidies to achieve any production, wind energy does not come cheap, particularly when compared to the unit cost of coal fired energy.
Solar has many linked problems with the biggest demands when the Sun don't shine at the forefront.

Now The Once Lucky Country has coal for ever all over the place and it also shares a rabid distrust of Nuclear as an option so for Mr Shorten to get any where near his very cynical promise the one thing he avoided was the costs, estimated to be many eye watering billions that when spread over consumers will make the KRudd/Gillard carbon tax seem allied to a church Bring and Buy.

With a Population of 24 million concentrated for nearly 10 million on Sydney and Melbourne surely the very best option for such a target would at least include pebble Nuclear and from what I am reading there is a loud silence on that.